Republicans have stepped up pressure on Democrats to ditch mask mandates in K-12 schools, pointing to new signs the public is growing weary of pandemic restrictions and citing the detrimental effects they have on children’s development.
A group of Republican House members led by Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Kentucky’s James Comer, ranking member of House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to lift masking recommendations for school children.
“The extent of the protection masks provide, particularly in schools, remains unknown — and it might be very small,” they said. “Several experts note it is entirely possible that open windows or increased ventilation accounts for nearly all the mitigation benefit in a classroom and other ‘layered’ interventions may contribute only a marginal benefit or none at all.”
CDC TO BEGIN PUBLISHING WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE DATA FOR COVID-19
Many county governments and individual school districts cite CDC guidance in their mask orders for children.
In Virginia, newly elected Republicans, led by Gov. Glenn Youngkin, stepped up their efforts to prevent children from being forced to wear masks at schools. Attorney General Jason Miyares joined a lawsuit against the Loudoun County School Board for defying Youngkin’s executive order that allows parents to opt out of school mask mandates.
“After nearly two years in this pandemic, we have better risk mitigation strategies and vaccines, and we know much more about the efficacy of requiring children to wear masks all day,” Miyares said in a press release. “Parents know what is best for their children and should be able to decide if their children wear a mask for eight hours a day.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also excoriated Democrats at the federal and local levels for keeping mask mandates in place despite evidence that shows children are at much lower risk of serious illness and death from COVID-19.
“Across the country, bureaucrats are still forcing young children to wear masks to participate in society when neither kids nor vaccinated adults are remotely likely to get gravely ill,” he said. “What exactly are we doing here? Where are the goalposts? What is the endgame?”
Children are just as susceptible to coronavirus infection as adults but are far less likely to become seriously ill. Up to 50% of children who catch COVID-19 might not have any symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Older adults, especially seniors, are much more likely to die due to COVID-19 than people under 18. About 0.01% of young people under 18 who are infected will die, compared to 5% for 65- to 74-year-olds, 12% for 75- to 84-year-olds, and 25% for people 85 and older, according to an analysis of federal data that includes the period before widespread vaccination.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The CDC has recommended since last summer that everyone 2 years and older wear a mask whenever possible regardless of vaccination status. Before late October, that meant the majority of school children. Children as young as 5 are now authorized to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, though vaccine uptake among that age group remains low. About 22% of children five through 11 and about 56% of children 12-17 have been fully vaccinated, according to a tracker from the Mayo Clinic.
Children are also at risk of missing developmental milestones due to the effects masking has on their ability to read facial expressions and understand speech. The United States is an outlier in recommending widespread masking for young children. The World Health Organization maintains that “children aged 5 years and under should not be required to wear masks,” and the European equivalent of the CDC does not recommend masks for children under 12.
The new fight over mask mandates at schools comes amid signs the public is increasingly ready to move away from COVID-19 restrictions. A recent Monmouth University poll found that 7 in 10 people agreed with the statement, “It’s time we accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.”
